Reset AutoCorrect on iPhone or iPad to Fix Improper Word Corrections

Autocorrect in iOS is pretty smart and usually gets things right, it also learns your habits and frequently typed words and will start autocorrecting what you type to the words you have used in the past. This can be a blessing and a curse, because if you accidentally corrected a word to a wrong one or a typo, the iPad/iPhone dictionary will want to use that new erroneous word as the correction. The solution to that problem is to reset autocorrect by clearing out the keyboard dictionary.

Resetting the auto-correct keyboard dictionary is the same on all versions of iOS and on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Here’s what you will want to do:

How to Reset the Auto-Correct Dictionary in iOS

Open the “Settings” app and tap on “General”

Tap “Reset” and then choose “Reset Keyboard Dictionary”, enter the device passcode and confirm the keyboard dictionary reset when asked

This exists in all versions of iOS, this is what the target dictionary reset setting looks like in modern iOS versions as shown on an iPhone:

Here is what the keyboard autocorrection dictionary reset option looks like on an iPad in prior iOS versions:

This clears out the entire autocorrect and keyboard dictionary letting you start over from scratch. Open up Notes or any other app that lets you type and you can start teaching iOS the proper words again.

Contrary to some claims, you do not need to reset the iPhone or iPad to factory defaults to fix improper word corrections, though if you had a great dictionary before it got messed up you can restore from a previous backup to get the better autocorrect dictionary back.

There are also some suggestions that resetting Keyboard Dictionary helps with Dictation accuracy as well if it’s learned the wrong words, though we haven’t been able to verify that completely.

On a related note, a hilarious horribly no-good dirty prank to play on friends is messing with their iPhone or iPads auto-correct dictionary, this causes autocorrect to replace a proper word with a wrong word. Don’t do that though.

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Your advice has worked to fix a peculiar annoyance I’m plagued with on my iPhone4s, but, not on my iPad (original, iOS 5.1.1).
In Japan, it’s common practice to tack the honorific suffix “-san” onto someone’s name. Unfortunately, despite the hundreds of times I have typed it (and forced it), autocorrect caps it (“-San”).
I have added “-san” to the shortcuts, and even tried your reset method above, turned off the auto-capitalization, to no avail.
How can I teach this old dog to hunt?

Turn off autocorrect! Maybe you’ve fixed this, 4 years later, but just in case….. You can always turn it back on, after you’ve typed the email. I know this isn’t a good solution, but hey, at least I offered one!